Students: 1999-1995

1999

Aisha Hobbs

Amber Frank

Deborah Stein

Deborah has been the playwright on three productions by the Pig Iron Theatre Company in Philadelphia: Anodyne ; Shut Eye (co-directed by Joseph Chaikin; 2001); and The Lucia Joyce Cabaret (originally produced with the support of the Princeton Atelier in 2003). Shut Eye was originally commissioned by Swarthmore College and the Department of Theater as the opening event of the 10th anniversary season of the Lang Performing Arts Center, and was produced with the support of the William J. Cooper Foundation and the Swarthmore Project in Theater, and in partnership with the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Shut Eye has since toured widely nationally and internationally to Poland, Ireland, and the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, and the script was published in TheatreForum in 2003. Deborah is a graduate of the MFA program in playwriting at Brown University, where she studied with Paula Vogel. Deborah has also taught playwriting at Brown. In 2005, she received a writing commission from the EST/Sloan Project. Her writing was also included in The Best American Poetry of 1996.

Erika Johansen

Gregory Ingber

Mary Meiklejohn

Michal Zadara

Currently enrolled in the postgraduate directing program at the Cracow State Drama School (Panstwowa Wyzsza Szkola Teatralna w Krakowie), which is led by Krystian Lupa. Previously enrolled in the directing program at the Warsaw Theater Academy (Akademia Teatralna w Warszawie).

Simon Harding

Studied at Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris and at Kiklos Teatro Scuola di Creazione Teatrale in Padua. Member of Sabooge Theatre in Montreal. Simon and SaBooge have twice enjoyed residencies on campus with support from The Swarthmore Project in Theater (2002; 2003). In 2002, their residency culminated in performances of Hatched at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Simon has worked in various capacities for Mum Puppettheater, Pig Iron Theatre Company, and Bryn Mawr College in Philadelphia, as well as for The Kitchen in New York City. He returned to campus to design the set for Senior Company's A Delicate Balance in 2003. Simon was cited for "best lighting design" in 2003-04 by the Philadelphia Weekly for his work on Mark Lord's production of Hamlet in/Sites at Bryn Mawr College. He designed the set for Sabooge's Fathom, which performed at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival in 2004; the production was named Best of Festival at the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2004. He will perform Oberon in Mum Puppettheater's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in Spring 2005.

Suzanne Andrews

Timothy Merkel

Since leaving Swarthmore, Timothy Merkel has completed an M.A. in Chemistry at Villa Nova University in Philadelphia and is currently enrolled in the Ph.D. program in Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

1997

Demetrios Bonaros

Demetri Bonaros is one of the co-artistic directors of Hipgnosis Theatre Company in New York City. For Hipgnosis he has played Autolycus in The Winter's Tale and Elbow in Measure For Measure. With The Compass Rose Theatre Company, he appeared in productions of Measure For Measure (Lucio), The Taming of the Shrew (Biondello), The Winter's Tale (Antigonus), and Much Ado About Nothing (Balthasar/Second Watch). Other New York credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream (Theseus), and Harvest with Richard Schechner's East Coast Artists. Demetri worked with Philadelphia's Pig Iron Theatre Company on The Island, a clown-dance adaptation of The Tempest, and he is the creator of Live TV, a one-man clown piece. He majored in Mathematics and Theater at Swarthmore College, and received an MA in Theater from Villa Nova University. He has also studied commedia dell'arte with Antonia Fava, piano at the Convservatory of Athens (Greece), and voice with Julian Rodescu.

Jodi Sherman

Martin Carrillo

Robert Dull

Solveig Holum

Suli is a Brooklyn based performer, writer, and director. She has performed with and cofounded Pig Iron Theatre Company. She wrote Pig Iron's 'Gentlemen Volunteers', winner of a Total Theatre Award at the Edinburgh Fringe, and subsequently toured throughout Europe. She performed in Joseph Chaikin's collaboration with Pig Iron, 'Shut Eye', with text by Deborah Stein, at The Traverse Theatre (Edinburgh), Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, the Wilma Theatre (Philadelphia), Theatre Artaud (San Francisco), and throughout Poland. She won a Barrymore Award for choreography for Pig Iron's wordless 'Cafeteria' and created roles in numerous other Pig Iron works. She has also performed with The Talking Band, Theatre of the Two Headed Calf and Off-Broadway: Hot 'n' Throbbing, Courting Vampires, Live Girls, Lebensraum; Regional: Arena Stage: Born Yesterday; Humana Festival: At the Vanishing Point, Phoenix. She received a Drama Desk Award for her performance in Israel Horowitz's 'Lebensraum' off-Broadway, and was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for Billie Dawn in 'Born Yesterday' at Arena Stage. Her first original solo show, The Lollipop Project, was developed through a Independence Foundation Individual Artist Fellowship and a Shell Fellowship in Drama from the National Institute of Education in Singapore. Holum was a participant in the 2009 Orchard Project with Emmanuelle Delpeche-Ramey for their original adaptation of Paul Claudel's L'Echange. She has a commission from England's Red Cape Theatre to write One Beach Road premiering September 2011. She is currently working with Deborah Stein in a HERE Artist Residency and is supported by a TCG Fox Resident Actor Fellowship.

1996

Alexis Gander

Corinna Burns

Guest Artist in Residence in 2000 as an actor in Seth Olshfski 00's senior honors directing thesis production in which she played the role of Hester in Athol Fugard's Hello & Goodbye. She returned to campus as Guest Artist in Residence in 2003 to perform the title role in Jessica Nakamura 03's senior honors directing thesis production of Federico Garcia Lorca's Yerma.

Elizabeth Webster

Completed an MFA in acting at the Academy for Classical Acting at The Shakespeare Theatre and George Washington University (Washington, DC). She has performed in Washington, DC, at the Kennedy Center, The Shakespeare Theatre, and Fords Theatre. In Philadelphia, she has performed at People's Light & Theatre Company, the Wilma Theatre, the Eureka Theatre Company, Interact Theatre Company, and the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. In Baltimore, she has performed at The Bay Theater, and in Los Angeles at the Douglas Fairbanks Theatre.

Joel Johnson

Joel is a 1998 Graduate of the masters program in Performance Studies at Northwestern University. In Chicago, he founded and performed with Cavity Lab (1999-2001). He toured with the media/performance group AlieNation in the US and UK in 1999. He returned to Philadelphia and to playwriting in 2002-03. He is currently living and writing in London.

Jove Graham

Lesley Tsina

Morgan Phillips

Vanessa Morrel

1995

Adam Koplan

Studied at Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris. Directing intern with Playwrights Horizons in New York City. Graduated with an MFA in directing from the School of Drama of the University of Washington-Seattle. Founder and Artistic Director of the Flying Carpet Theater Company in New York City. Artist-In-Residence with members of Flying Carpet as part of the Swathmore Project in Theater in 2002, 2003, and 2004. Directed workshop versions in the Frear Ensemble theater at Swarthmore of The Mystery of Chung Ling Soo and The Eleventh Hour . The Eleventh Hour was written by John Derderian '97 and Phil Ryan '97.

Dan Rothenberg

Studied at Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris. Founding member and Co-Artistic Director of Pig Iron Theatre Company in Philadelphia. A member of Swarthmore College's Board of Managers. Guest Artist In Residence as director of an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth in April, 2004--the Department's first honors thesis project in acting.

Jeffrey Sugg

Jeff Sugg is a New York-based artist, designer, and technical advisor. He is also co-founder of the installation/performance company Transmission Projects with whom he has co-created and designed five productions in collaboration with artist Tom Fruin. Other theater design: The Collapsible Giraffe (lighting), The San Francisco Mime Troupe (set and slides), and The Pig Iron Theatre Company (sets and lighting). Performance production work: The Wooster Group (technical artist), Richard Foreman, Laurie Anderson, Big Dance Theater, John Jesurun, Stephen Petronio, GAle GAtes et al (effects designer/engineer), Dennis Cleveland at Lincoln Center(projection system designer/engineer). Music design: collaborations with composer Joseph Diebes (production designer), Cynthia Hopkins with Gloria Deluxe (lighting director), Natalie Cole (lighting director). Jeff returned to campus in April 2002 to show his work and speak as part of the Alumni Design Exhibit sponsored by the William J. Cooper Foundation as part of the 10th Anniversary Season of the Lang Performing Arts Center at Swarthmore.

Jennifer Setlow

Jennifer has designed productions for Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The Old Globe (San Diego), Merrimack Repertory Theatre (Lowell, MA), La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego Repertory Theatre and Théâtre de la Jeune Lune (Minneapolis). In Phoenix she has designed for the Sledgehammer Theatre, Black Dahlia Theatre, Malashock Dance, Diversionary Theatre and many others. She is the recipient of the KPBS Pattè Award for Luis Valdez's Earthquake Sun , the NAACP Image Award for Lynn Nottage's Intimate Apparel at San Diego Repertory Theatre . Jennifer holds an MFA from the University of California, San Diego and is an Assistant Professor at Arizona State University in Phoenix.

Keelyn Bradley

Marc Chernoff

Nathaniel Read

Founding member of Pig Iron Theatre Company in Philadelphia. Graduate of NYU School of Law. Currently working at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges LLP of New York City. Formerly employed by Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, also in Manhattan.